Mediums having images or information thereon or therein such as motion picture films, x-ray films, film negatives, documents, legal or otherwise, are subject to a variety of uses such as viewing, exposing, projecting, scanning, and/or copying. Conventionally, such mediums do not provide any capacity for providing tracking information indicating that such a medium has been so used, how many times the medium has used, who used the medium, how the medium was used, and where the medium was used. This presents a potential security risk in that any person possessing such medium can make unauthorized use of the medium. Thus, what is needed is a device for use with a medium that enables data to be recorded in association with the medium to indicate use of the medium.
Such a combination of medium devices has many valuable applications, for example, in Hospital Information Systems (HIS) or Radiology Information Systems (RIS) to track the use of patient medical records data for patients admitted to hospitals or receiving outpatient care so that the patients privacy can be properly maintained. By using such a combination, information such as who has viewed a patients x-ray films or how many copies of an original document have been made can be determined from the original copy. This can help to ensure privacy and help to obtain the proper medical care, without jeopardizing quality and timeliness. Similarly, access and use of confidential legal and financial records can be tracked in like manner.
In other applications, the motion picture industry could benefit also by knowing how many times a motion picture has been viewed or if the motion picture had been scanned in a way that would indicate an illegal copy had been made.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need to be able tell if a medium has been viewed, exposed, scanned or photo copied.
Document management systems are known that track document movement by associating a tracking memory such as a bar code or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag with each document. In these systems, the movement and use of the documents having a tracking memory monitored by specially adapted readers that detect the use of the document and stores data characterizing the use of the document. However, such a system is useful only where the documents must be used in a manner that triggers such a reader. Other use of the document will not be detected or recorded. For example if a document is copied using a copier that is not adapted with a reader, the copying of the document will not be recorded.
Thus, what is needed is the ability to monitor use of a medium that can indicate that a medium has been viewed, exposed, scanned, photo copied or otherwise used, but that does not depend upon the use of the medium in conjunction with a specially adapted device.